The following three bands make my list of the most underrated bands ever: The Kinks, Thin Lizzy, and...Tesla. Yes, fucking Tesla. Now let me explain myself here.
Tesla for some reason gets lumped into the category of hair metal but really was nothing like the rest of their peers (main reason: while most of those bands were filled with pretty boys, the bass player and drummer of Tesla might be the two ugliest dudes that have ever picked up musical instruments). Tesla was a hard rock band in the truest sense of the genre. The lead singer (Jeff Keith) has one of the best rock voices. (I'm a firm believer that the best voices are gravelly and scratchy. Hence why Liam Gallagher and Rod Stewart rule…but I digress…)
There are 3 albums I vividly remember hearing for the first time and being blown away. Appetite For Destruction by GN'R, Nevermind by Nirvana, and Mechanical Resonance by Tesla. My older brother played it for me when I was 8 and I remember he had somehow gotten an advanced copy (which actually boggles my mind now that I think about it. How the hell did my 14 year old brother with no connection to the music industry end up with a promo of Tesla's first album?)
All things aside, the real focus of this entry is that Tesla is one of the most underrated bands ever because they wrote one of the best songs of all time: Love Song.
I do not care what you say. Unless you agree with me, you are wrong. American Pie, Freebird, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Bohemian Rhapsody, Strawberry Fields...they got nothin' on Love Song. This song is amazing. Starts off with a slow classical guitar solo (totally stolen from Dee by Randy Rhoads but whatever...it's homage) and then goes into a slow ballad-type intro, followed by two guitar solos (Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeotch represent) and then blows up with a huge fist-pumping chorus that proclaims "Love will find a way." How great is that? It's fucking triumphant! Hopeful! Love will find a way, damn it!
Now I'm not going to lie here. I have never listened to another Tesla album after their third studio album Psychotic Supper. All I know is that at some point they made an album called Bust a Nut that had a picture of a walnut in a vice grip or something on the cover. But if my brother ever somehow manages to get his hands on an advanced copy of a new Tesla album (which would probably be even more mind-boggling now) I'd definitely give it a listen.
